Little Orphan Anvil: The Complete Trilogy by Joseph Beekman (good beach reads .txt) 📗

chance to have fun while they’re still youngsters!”He shook his head discontentedly. “Workin’ round theclock without any allowance for their imaginations tosoar properly—just isn’t right.”

He stood up and walked over to the robot; itsround, metallic form was close to completion, save for afew missing panels for coverings.

“Yep!” he said aloud to the cat, as he placed aweathered hand on the robot. “This here droid will be agreat help around that sullen old mansion!”

The cat meowed and scurried off. The old mangrinned, his gaze fixed on the robot.

So long as that old woman is no longer bitterover mechanical things, he thought to himself, thenthings will be plenty fine for those orphans—as theyshould be…

*******

Meteorites streaked across the night sky over anold, rustic mansion. Situated within the vast field ofwithered orchards, and shadowed by great, snowcapped mountains, the mansion was home to a handfulof orphaned children.

A cold wind howled through the front courtyardof the once, flourishing mansion. From the uppermostfloor, two red-orbs of light pierced outwards from anopen window.

Inside, as the children slept soundly, a little girlcrept past the silent rooms towards the source of the redglow. She tip-toed softly along, her eyes wide withcaution. Occasionally a floor board would creak,startling her, and she would stop in fright for fear ofbeing found sneaking about.

As she crept closer to the room, two voices couldbe heard within chattering back and forth. She stoppedand stood silently against the wall next to the door.Directly across from her, two shadows moved about onthe wall; they were the shadows of the two peoplechatting in the room.

Her blue eyes grew wide and her body becamerigid with fear as she listened. She knew the voices tobe that of the “witch-lady,” as they had secretly come tocall the old woman, and of the nice old man from theold barnyard house nearby.

“No—I will not allow this cursed metal machineto run things around here!” the old woman ventedloudly. “It will rob the orphans of their duties to be ofmaximum service to this mansion, and to their ownresponsibilities!”

The old man coughed and cleared his throat. “Itis you who are robbing these children—these poor,orphaned children, of their imaginations and theirfreedom to run and play,” he sorely replied.

The little girl gulped down her fear as shelistened to their voices rise; she continued to watchtheir shadows on the wall.

“I am telling you now, and this is my finalword—get rid of that thing and keep it to your ownparts of the land!” the old woman said, speaking with afirm and bitter tone. “I’ll have no more of thisnonsense!”

The old man shook his head, and removing hisglasses he wiped at his brow. “Well then,” he saidfirmly, “if it must be so, then you have doomed theseorphans to a life of nothingness. May the Spirits havepity on your wicked soul…” Standing up, he movedover to the robot and lifted it off of the nightstand bythe open window.

The old woman, her graying hair tied tightly in abun, watched him with an evil glare. Her eyes glowedwith venom.

Rolling his eyes at her in disbelief, he walked tothe doorway with the robot in his arms. A sharp glint oflight caught his eye; turning towards it he noticed anold, rustic crystal atop a mantle. He paused to look atit.

“Don’t mind that!” the lady spouted. “That isvery, very old, and is not in need of someone like you,of this so-called science, to gaze his wicked eyes uponit!”

He looked over his shoulder at her scowling face.Her eyes pierced into his with anger. “No, I believethere isn’t, indeed,” he said calmly, and continuedtowards the doorway.

The little girl, hearing his footsteps as theyapproached closer to the doorway, quickly scamperedoff down the hall.

~ Chapter II

~ Live Wired

Dark clouds danced and swirled in the sky likegiant balloons exploding through the rain-soaked air.Far below, the land was filled with rushing water andtoppled trees. In the midst was a massive amount ofmetal and wires—a great flowing, muddy mess.

In the murky distance a large crater had openedup in the earth, swallowing whole all the watery debrisand metallic mush. From atop a twisted piece of treetrunk, a round-metal object lay: a little robot-droid.Clutching the tree trunk tightly with long, spidery,metallic-limbs, the robot shivered in fright. Its large,robotic red-eyes glimmered brightly from its rustrounded surface.

As the water rushed onward, the robot let out along and warbled whistle in distress of its ever-growingperil. The crater’s edge grew much closer.

Suddenly a lightning bolt blasted out of theclouds and struck the robot, lifting it upwards like amagnet. It sailed far across the wide, watery madnessinto an unknown fate.

A few weeks later…

Wandering across a broken landscape of swampymarshes, a little boy and his dog trudged tirelesslyalong. The boy, around nine or ten years of age, withscruffy, dirty-blond hair, and dressed in tattered coveralls, carried a tree stick slung over his shoulder with acloth sack tied on the end. A large brown and redfurred dog, its tail swinging wildly about in the air,lumbered alongside, sniffing the cool breeze andoccasionally lapping up bits of water.

After some time and travel the dog’s ears pointedstraight up and it froze still—its eyes were wide alert,staring forward. The boy turned around and gave thedog a puzzled look.

“What is it, boy? What do you see?” the boyasked gently.

The dog bounced toward the boy and nudged himonward towards a muddy run-off near a band of brush.

“Okay, okay, let’s go look—just be careful!” theboy shouted.

The boy picked up his speed, but had sometrouble with all the mud and gunk making his bootsheavy and his steps even heavier.

*******

As the boy neared the run-off, he could see hisdog standing cautiously a few feet away from whatlooked like metallic branches poking out of the mud.Whimpering, the dog desperately clawed at the mudaround the spiky metal.

“Whatcha got, boy? What is it?” the boy saidcuriously as he looked about the ground.

He set his belongings down and picked up a bigtree branch, which he used to help the dog as it continued to dig into the grime and mud.

“Good boy, keep digging—but be careful,” hesaid very seriously.